A Rather Odd Lot
by rudefool
Summary: James, Sirius and Peter didn't expect Remus's mother to be so healthy when the met her at Kings Cross after First Year. Even less expected is the fact she has one of the manliest jobs of the Muggle world. Needless to say, they are questioning their friend's claims, but not without some excitement over power tools.


Yoyoyo! I really do like Harry Potter- The Marauders in particular. Here's some junk I wrote to possibly highlight my love for them.

A Rather Odd Lot:

It was an odd moment when they finally met Remus's mother amidst the rolling bustle of platform 9 3/4. The three of them had prepared their condolences, sure they would face a woman on her death bed only rising to greet her son. They were mistaken.

Remus's father looked remarkably like a taller, older version of his child with bushy, grey- brown hair. They shared the same long, narrow nose and sharp jaw and held themselves in a similar fashion: neither meek nor attention grabbing. He seemed to hold a great affection for tweed and his cloak held a ministry badge on a lapel of overlapping threads of varying shades of brown. Father and son apparently also shared a love for terrifically dull colors. The man bent from his height slightly to point out his approaching boy to the person at his side. Next to Mr. Lupin stood a stout and sturdy woman who could only be described as 'handsome' rather than beautiful or pretty. Sirius asked Remus if she was his nanny. James cut the young Black's question off. The mystery woman was obviously an aunt or someone along those lines. Peter was about the suggest that maybe this woman was a co-worker when the object of their musings called an overjoyed "REMUS!" to their now very embarrassed friend.

Then, to their utter surprise, she snatched him up in an all-encompassing, almost gravity-defying hug. Remus was bright red and grinning into her burnt orange blouse and saying things like "Yes, mum those are my friends." and "Yes, I did have a good school year" and "No, they most definitely aren't the troublemakers I told you about in the beginning of the year."

James turned to Sirius.

"You reckon she isn't ill right now?" and the boy next to him nodded slowly. Mrs. Lupin was most definitely not sick at that moment- in fact, she looked obscenely healthy next to her pale and exhausted son.

Remus introduced everyone, his father giving a short inclination of the head accompanied by a warm, close lipped smile that resembled his son's some much it had James checking to see if Remus had suddenly aged to the man before him. Mrs. Lupin was far more outspoken, her dark brown eyes (one of the few attributes Remus had inherited from his mother) twinkled with some sort of untethered curiosity.

"You three must be James, Sirius and Peter!" she shook each boys' enthusiastically. "Remus has told be so much about you." It was then that James noticed she was missing two fingers on her left hand.

He stared.

His reaction was met with a sly grin from the dark haired woman before them.

"A saw got the better of me." she supplied with a waggle of her hand, helping little in her son's friends' comprehension.

"My mum's a carpenter. She works with saws and drills to make cabinets and the like." Remus informed them with an amused smile at their speechlessness.

"A true bother, it is." Mr. Lupin interjected from somewhere above them, his mild voice held undeniable affection. "I can't even begin to tell you how stressful the entire ordeal was when Andrea decided she didn't need two of her fingers. Couldn't even take her to St. Mungo's. That was a right old mess if I've ever seen one, wasn't it Remus?"

"John!"

"Mum is very careless with her limbs." Father and son even spoke alike, but that unassuming wit James detected was entirely Remus.

"Well so much for impressions, John! Now Remus' friends must think I lop off my own digets for a laugh!" Mrs. Lupin was certainly making an impression: an impression of being rather jovial for someone who was supposedly deathly ill.

"You're a muggle?" Peter asked quietly.

"Of course I'm a muggle dear. You don't see my husband going around with missing fingers! He has all sorts of magical ways to get them reattached."

"And I don't cut wood and watch the telly at the same time." came John Lupin's now distinctly sarcastic remark. His wife rolled her smiling eyes. James decided he liked Remus' parents very much. Sirius seemed to share that sentiment.

"Cool! You use powder tools! Do you think I could, you know, try them out one day?"

"Powder tools? Do you mean power tools-"

"And a telly-vision! Remus! You have to let us come over so we can see your- your telly- whatsit!" The Black family heir had been revived from his gloom over returning to his bigoted family for the summer. James wondered if Sirius was this excited over Muggle technology because it genuinely interested him or if it was because he wanted to annoy his ever pure blood parents.

"I'm sure you can come visit Remus this summer." Mrs. Lupin told him as she drew her son to her side in a one armed embrace. He smiled up at her.

"Do you think they have a motorcycle, James? I bet Mrs. Lupin has a motorcycle if she has powder tools." James answered his earlier musings at this question. Sirius just happened to have a natural curiosity for all things Muggle. The fact it drove his parents absolutely bonkers was just a rather convenient side affect of his friend's interests.

"Oh the motorcycle! The bane of my existence." Mr. Lupin accompanied this with a odd hand gesture that could have been interpreted as a minorly theatrical lament.

"We don't have a motorcycle Sirius. And you're going to have to tell us what, exactly, powder tools are because I'm afraid we don't have any of those either." Remus told his friend who though Mr. Lupin was being serious. Mrs. Lupin snickered.

"I think your friend meant to say power tools, Remus." she still looked unreasonably well for someone on their sickbed.

James became aware of his staring when Remus met his eyes it that unnerving way that said: "You're thinking of something that you should probably not think about. Everyone would most likely benifit if you stopped thinking about it."

It was a very effective look and it usually worked on James because Remus was almost always right. He had the strange ability to decypher your thoughts before you acted upon them and an even stranger way of knowing just how stupid they usually were. Remus' 'looks' reminded James of Dumbledor's penetrating glances when the headmaster knew exactly who thought it would be funny to put a wig in the Slytherins' pudding. Really, it was terribly unnerving.

To cover his slight embarrassment, James decided to delve into the strange conversation himself, asking with honest interest if Mrs. Lupin had ever been on an aero plane. This question agitated Sirius's questioning further.

"Do you own an aero plane? How does it stay up? Can you fly one?" Mr. Lupin gave the eager boy a rather bemused look.

"Aero planes are rather expensive Mr. Black. And if Andrea is as good at flying a plane as she is at driving then Merlin help us all!"

"I don't see you taking the wheel any time we drive somewhere!"

Remus had stopped giving James the 'look' and was watching his parents with a somewhat dopey smile. After living with the quiet boy for a year, it became obvious the youngest of the Lupin family was an observer. He watched others and only inserted his opinion when deemed absolutely necessary. Each word would be measured, even and painstakingly well thought out. That was a habit neither of his parents exhibited, both seemed rather talkative- even the generally mild Mr. Lupin- compared with their son. Remus' social needs seemed to only require the presence of other people. But when Remus spoke, you listened, because such thoughtful words should never fall on deaf ears.

Now that the 'look' had been drawn away from him, James took the opportunity to think about how to address Mrs. Lupin's supposed illness. He mulled it over extensively, Sirius giving him odd looks for his silence and whispering that "Really, James. Talk. Being quiet is Remus's job.". It was a hard topic to breech and James needed at least some tact. He opened he mouth, ready to regret what was soon to be uttered.

"Mrs. Lupin, I hope you're umm... Feeling better?"

Suddenly, James felt immensfuly grateful for Peter getting the nerve to ask such an unfortunate question. He was saved by his chubby friend, who turned very red at his own words, almost resembling a cherry parfait in coloring. Remus, on the other hand, seemed to lose any color all together.

"Of course I am! Never better dear."

Mrs . Lupin seemed genuinely confused for a moment until she glanced down at her son and gave him a tight smile. She squeezed his hand and seemed to reach some nonverbal conclusion with Remus.

"Andrea is afflicted by a muggle illness." Mr. Lupin's voice startled everyone. His voice was clipped and controlled- much like how Remus talked when uncomfortable or angry. Each word seemed painful to Mr. Lupin, as if it were tugged from some closed of depth with in him. Remus recovered from his unexplained fright to smile at Peter.

"Mum's alright at the moment. It's the sort of sickness that comes and goes." and it was this that truly grabbed James's attention. The 'look' was gone and Remus's face set into that familiar neutral front. It was hard to see beyond that, but James's fellow Gryffindor let something slip by. A small grimace flashed on Remus's face, the expression was quickly hidden, but James didn't miss it. The Lupin family seemed to close up at Peter's inquiry each with an expression of varying guardedness. Remus was hardest read, James knew he was quite good at hiding his true emotions. Mrs. Lupin was visibly uncomfortable.

"Well! I believe we need to catch the train back to Leeds." her voice seemed to startle both her son and husband. "Can't have my boys running around London, can we?" James only nodded, feeling incredibly obvious. He had barely spoken a word to the Lupins. This was mainly attributed to the shock of seeing Remus's mother so well. Remus undoubtably noticed his suspicious silence.

"Remus. You'd better let us come over this summer to see all that Muggle stuff." James finally spoke and his words managed to cover some of the family's discomfort, much to everyone's relief. Remus's stiff posture slackened and he gave a genuine grin.

"Never mind coming to see me." he quipped.

"Remus, Remus." Sirius chided as if speaking to a young child "All you ever do is read and tell us that our prank ideas are idiotic. Powder tools on the other hand... Now there's something exciting."

"They're called power tools Sirius."

"Well whatever they are, we're coming to see them,right James, Peter?"

James grinned. "You bet." Peter nodded, still slightly flustered.

"Well I'll be sure to give you boys a demonstration. Maybe Remus will help too."

"Yes Remus. Make sure your mother keeps the rest of her fingers intact." Mrs. Lupin elbowed her husband with a firm arm. The youngest Lupin gave a small smile and an affectionate roll of his eyes.

"Remus! Defend me from your father! Your friends must think I'm a mad woman by now. I married a real cheeky basta-"

"And I think I hear our train to Leeds. We should catch it before it leaves." John Lupin gave another quick incline of his head. "It was a pleasure meeting all of you. Thank you for being Remus's friends." the last phrase stuck oddly in James's mind and he nearly had time to mull it over until Mrs. Lupin announced that "Of course we're leaving. Don't want anyone ELSE to think we're mad, do we?"

Remus told them in his quiet, level voice that he would write to them and they just had to ask if they wanted to come and see the power tools. Sirius gave his friend a clap on the boney shoulder and wished him a good holiday. Peter copied the motion, but found no words to accompany it and instead nodded as if reaching some unvoiced conclusion. Much to Remus's obvious surprise, and slight discomfort, James desided the only proper good bye was to fling arms around him and tell him to have a good vacation or else. James didn't care that Remus didn't like being touched. He wanted to say good bye effectively and he couldn't think of a better way.

As the three of them watched the retreating forms of the Lupins, Sirius leaned in and whispered something surprisingly insightful about the family- especially considering the vast amount of time spent with Muggle tools on his mind.

"You know... I don't think his mother is sick."

Peter turned curious eyes towards them.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

James agreed. There was something odd about the otherwise very likable Lupins. It was a mystery they both yearned and dreaded to solve. And James hoped, for everyone's sake, that the inevitable discovery wouldn't ruin their friendship.

But forget life altering realizations. The three of them had some powder or power tools or whatever they were called to mess with when they visited Remus's house and it was no secret that he was excited. Let the problem lay low for some time. They would find out when they needed to.

ANNNN... Well. That's that. Do what you want and hopefully you didn't cringe throughout the entire reading of this text- if you did then I'm sorry, but you shouldn't really be subjecting yourself to such pains.


End file.
